Behind The Scenes – Making a Course

Welcome to my first ever vlog style documentary where I’m bringing you behind the scenes during the making of a course! This video contains footage condensed over 10 days where I planned, structured, wrote, recorded, built and launched my Divi/WordPress Beginners Course.

From structuring and writing the posts, recording the video, building out the course in LearnDash, to following me to my favorite local coffee shops, my networking group and even walking the dog, everything in my course creation process is covered! You’ll get an in-depth look how I went about creating the course and how I market it once it’s live.

This post is broken down into 3 sections:

My Course Creation Process

The Gear/Set Up & Tools I Use

Video Outline (if you want to come back to it or skip around)

If you’re interested in creating courses, I hope this gives you a good process to model after or at least some inspiration as to what’s worked for me and if you’re just interested in getting a peak behind the curtain, I hope this gives you some good insight on the amount work that goes into creating a course!

1) My Course Creation Process:

Phase 1:

Identify who the course is for

Layout the initial module structure

Adjust course product page initial designs

Create course featured image

Revise course structure in Google Docs

Write out all course posts in Google Docs

Send note to all who pre-ordered via MailChimp (and via social media) that the course is coming soon

Phase 2:

Create course post structure (in LearnDash)

Create course intro page content & video

Drop in and format all written post content for first module

Record videos for first module

Create course project in Vimeo

Edit videos, export and upload to Vimeo

Transfer remaining written content for all modules and format posts

Record remaining videos then edit, export and upload to Vimeo

Phase 3:

Embed all videos in course posts

Add links, resources, course reference guide

Edit and revise all written content

Create course teaser video

Launch course

Email enrolled students that course is live and ready to access

Email students of other courses with special discount before course is promoted publicly

Promote course via main email list and Facebook

There are of course little specifics not mentioned here but this is the in depth, step by step guide I follow for all my courses. And again, while this process may look simple, the complexities of video editing, recording, writing, etc are all factored in here. And if a course is in the ballpark of 30, 40 or 50 + videos, this process can take several weeks depending on how much time I can devote to creating all the course content.

2) My Current Gear/Setup Shown in Video:

As I mention in the video, my setup is fairly amateur compared to more established course creators and I’ll soon be upgrading my main computer and revamping my home office/studio…but for now, it works! And the cool thing is, if you’re interested in doing courses or creating video content, you can get started with a very limited budget.

3) Video Outline:

Side note: if you go to the description in YouTube you can link directly to the times in the video 😉

0:00 – Intro

Day 1: (2/18/19)

4:24 – Heading to local coffee shop to revise course structure8:33 – Overview of revised structure and start writing course posts11:30 – Initial announcement of course live date for FB and people who pre-ordered14:19 – Ending day one – walk’n the dog

Day 2: (2/19/19)

15:02 – Drive up to favorite coffee shop to write all posts16:05 – Writing out remainder of course20:18 – Saying hey to my girls and overview of written course content21:41 – Ending day 2 – walk’n the dog (again)

Day 3: (2/20/19)

22:22 – Building course posts & recording intro video23:30 – A look at building the course in LearnDash30:19 – A look at my gear33:20 – Recording intro video37:43 – A look at how I create video thumbnails39:30 – Uploading first video to Vimeo42:44 – Embedding video in post

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed getting a behind the scenes look at what it takes to create a course! At least on of my courses 🙂 If you’re interested in creating courses yourself or if you build sites for course creators, you’re welcome to model after any of my processes or gear I use. Or if you’re just curious about what’s going on behind the scenes, I hope this has been at least a little entertaining!

Oh and finally, if you’re interesting in learning the basics of Divi and WordPress, I’m sure you’ll have a much bigger appreciation for the course after seeing what goes into it!

Follow me on Facebook!

Like and Follow Me on Facebook to connect with me, see exclusive Facebook-only webinars, Q&A’s and to get exclusive deals and offers I only provide to my FB followers!

Join my Divi Facebook Group!

Join my Divi Web Designers Facebook group to get free support and to be automatically plugged into an awesome, supportive community of fellow Divi/WordPress web designers!

Join the Cool Club (aka my email list)

Leave this field empty if you’re human:

I offer exclusive discounts and deals to my email list and promise not to abuse the privilege to email you directly. No spam. Just special deals, important announcements and a notification when a new tutorial or video goes live!